Team 1

1. Mr. Prateek Pail met with an accident on 10.10.2012 while he was driving his car along
the A.B. Road. As a result of the accident, he sustained injuries for which he was taken to
a small hospital, Sudhansh Care Hospital. As there was no advanced equipment in that
hospital, he was rushed to Apollo Research Centre.
2. At Apollo, his X-rays, scans and other tests were carried out whereby a fracture of the
mid-shaft of the right femur was detected. Thereafter, he was referred to specialist
hospital namely Santram Institute of Medical Science and Dr. M. Gulati, who was a well-
known orthopaedic surgeon, took charge of the patient under personal care.
3. At the time of admission in the hospital he was conscious, and then Dr. Gulati decided to
conduct open reduction of fracture and internal fixation under anaesthesia. As operation
procedure was on, they found that some equipment was not performing at optimal level
as the equipment used were not advanced equipment.
4. But, Dr. Gulati was of the view that the level of performance of equipment was
manageable, so they went ahead with the operation, in view of the urgency of the
situation.
5. The equipment involved included machines used for monitoring of oxygen supply and
the retention level of anaesthesia. After the operation the patient was kept under
observation, but he did not regain consciousness for 24 hours, for which he was referred
to Bindra Multi-Specialty Hospital, on the ground that the respirator was not functioning
in the Santram Hospital.
6. Meanwhile, there was an accident that took place in the highway, due to which the
hospital vans were engaged in bringing the injured patients. Therefore, there was a delay
in sending the patient to Bindra Multi-Specialty Hospital.
7. When the patient reached the emergency department of multi-specialty hospital, a team
of three senior doctors, with no anaesthetic among them made an investigation on the
patient, before commencing any treatment and held that the operation procedure followed
by Santram Hospital was extremely deficient, that the doctors put into service equipment
that they knew to be old model equipment, yet they proceeded to operate on the patient
and that now second operation was now inevitable, although the chance of survival is
 lesser now. But it was conducted on an urgent basis; however, the patient did not survive
the operation.
8. The relatives filed a FIR complaining of murder by management and doctors of Santram
Hospital with charges of criminal negligence of murder, delay in treatment and failure to
provide advance technology for best treatment of patient.
9. Though Sessions Court did not find sufficient evidence against the accused and acquitted
them.

The case is now on appeal before the High Court of Indore Bench.